Hometown: Mansfield, Ohio
Current Residence: Masonic Home in Springfield
Family: Wife, three children, three children-in-law, seven grandchildren, two grandchildren-in-law, four great grandchildren (20 total in family).
Career After the Military: Insurance agent, 32 years; hotel auditor, eight years part-time; health care center, front desk clerk, 14 years part-time
RELATED: Springfield vet completed secret WWII missions
Branch of Service: U.S. Army
Did you join the military or were you drafted? Drafted in 1951
Dates of Service: 1951-1953
Deployments/Bases: Ft. Meade, Md.; Camp Atterbury, Ind.; Ft. Jackson, S.C.; Henri Kaserne, Munich, Germany; Camp Bowie, Texas; Indiantown Gap, Pa.
Total time that you served? Two years
What did you do in the service? Tank crew — bow gunner
READ MORE: Springfield sailor killed in Pearl Harbor now home 75 years later
What did you gain from serving in the military? I am a US Army veteran forever … God bless America.
What do you remember most about your service? I went to Munich, Germany, seven years after World War II and the bombed buildings were everywhere. Not rebuilt. I visited Dachau Concentration Camp and cried.
What would you like readers to know about your military experience? I was age 21, single and I grew up.
Is there anything else you want readers to know about you that we didn't ask? Appreciate those WWII guys. They saved the world.
Hometown Veterans is compiled with the assistance of local Vietnam veteran Randy Ark. To nominate a veteran, e-mail samantha.sommer@coxinc.com or randyark48@gmail.com or call 937-328-0363. Any veteran of any military branch, years of service and age is eligible to be profiled.
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